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At NZ Gardener, we believe that gardeners love seeing birds, especially our native birds, in our gardens. But, as I’m sure you know, many species of native birds are in a parlous state right now. Yet basically our native birds need just three things to survive. Safety from predators, habitat and enough genetic diversity for long-term resilience. And the most important of these – by far – is safety from predators.

You might think predator control is something that’s useful on DOC land or in rural areas. But actually urban gardens are likely home to a variety of introduced predators, and almost certainly rats. So we are calling on the nation’s gardeners to start trapping in their own backyard. Apparently one trap in every fifth backyard would be enough to get the rat population under control. And if we were able to do that, then our gardens could become sanctuaries that went some way to allow our native bird species to recover. Even be able to thrive.